


What Remains

by Oricalle



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Azure Moon Route, Blood, Canonical Character Death, Injury, Love Confessions, M/M, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:46:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25911559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oricalle/pseuds/Oricalle
Summary: Linhardt has never run this quickly in his entire life.
Relationships: Caspar von Bergliez/Linhardt von Hevring
Comments: 7
Kudos: 28





	What Remains

Linhardt has never run this quickly in his entire life.

His whole body burns as he dashes through what remains of Fort Merceus, past the fallen weapons and broken walls, over the bodies clad in Adrestian black or Faerghus blue, and red, all of them red, until he reaches the armory where a soldier stands guard.

“Halt!” he commands, holding up his shield. The lion emblazoned upon it seems to snarl a warning.

“I’m a medic!” Linhardt huffs, his lungs protesting every breath. For emphasis, he reaches down to the belt around his waist and tosses away the scabbard attached, kicking it towards the armored Faerghan. He raises his hands in surrender. “I mean you no harm.”

There is a moment, Linhardt can tell, when the man considers killing him. The lance gripped in his right hand waivers in the air, and the blood at its tip drips slowly onto the floor. After a pause, he relents, stepping to the side. 

“Don’t try anything funny.” he mutters.

It takes all of Linhardt’s restraint not to barrel past him, but as he walks slowly into the darkened building, he finds what he was looking for anyway.

“Heya, buddy.”

Caspar is still smiling.

His body is bruised, his armor dented, and a bloody splotch radiates from the center of his chest, but Caspar von Bergliez has the same stupid grin on his face that Linhardt has seen a thousand times before.

“Caspar!” Linhardt makes his way across the floor, stepping over what remains of the armory guard and several Faerghan soldiers. He ignores the pain that surges through his knees as he drops them to the bloodslick floor, placing both hands on Caspar’s shoulders and beginning to channel a healing spell with every ounce of strength in him.

“Wow, Lin...I don’t think I’ve ever…” Caspar hacks into the air, stammering over his words. “S-s-een you sweat be-before.”

“Shut up and stay still.” Now, as he leans over Caspar’s fallen body, Linhardt can see the other man’s wounds far more clearly. The dents are not from a single weapon, but many, and the blood that is spattered across his oldest friend is not all his own. Whatever battle took place here, it was fierce. The trio of deep punctures in Caspar’s quest prove that much.

“I really...really gave it to ‘em today, Lin. It was a...hell of a f-fight.” His expression darkens, almost imperceptibly. “Can’t...can’t believe we lost.”

“I need you to calm down and stay still.” Linhardt grits his teeth, trying to fight back the tears he can feel accumulating in his eyes. “You’re going to be alright.”

Caspar is silent, for once. As Linhardt’s spell begins easier to focus, his mind wanders, drifting to the last conversation he had with the Emperor of Adrestia.

_”Take this assignment seriously, Linhardt. Fort Merceus is directly in the line of Dimitri’s forces.” She had sighed deeply, her face creased with stress. “I need you both to survive. Promise me you will return.”_

“Hey Lin?”

“I asked you to-”

“I’m not gonna make it.”

As a chill runs up Linhardt’s spine, he can feel a pair of hands lightly encircling his own. 

Caspar is still smiling. But it is a different smile than before.

“Don’t. Don’t say that.”

The boisterousness and braggadocio is gone, vanished with the strength of his voice and the volume of his laugh. The Caspar here is beaten, broken, but still undeniably himself.

“Lin...you...you’re a genius….but this is it.” Another coughing fit sends Caspar’s torso heaving forward as Linhardt wraps his arms around him, trying in vain to hold him still. “I don’t...I don’t want any regrets...so…”

“Whatever you have to say, it can wait!”

“Linhardt, I-”

“SHUT UP!”

“I love you.”

For a moment, Linhardt’s heart stops in his chest, but it is uncommonly easy for the next words to come out.

“I love you too.”

He inhales deeply, gripping Caspar’s hands as if they are the last stable thing in the world.

“And I hate that it has to be this way. It can’t. It just can’t. We were supposed to make it! You and I were supposed to survive!” Tears are freely flowing now, dripping onto Caspar’s chest as Linhardt’s grip tightens even further. “I buried Ferdinand, I buried Bernadetta, and each time I looked down at them I thought about burying you! And I can’t, Caspar, I just...I can’t! You’re the most important thing in the world to me and I can’t…”

He breathes in deeply.

“I can’t stop talking, because I’m worried you won’t respond.”

Linhardt sinks, weeping, onto Caspar’s lifeless corpse. He holds him close, his face buried in his azure hair, so deeply that nothing else exists any longer.

When the Javelins fall upon Fort Merceus, Linhardt and Caspar are still there.

They burn together.

Caspar is still smiling.

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't planning on doing a weekly drabble this week, because I put out "Uneasy Is The Head" instead, but I had this idea strike me at about 1 in the morning and couldn't really stop typing until I'd finished it.
> 
> So it's a double week for these! This one is, hopefully, much more sad!
> 
> I talked about Caspar and Linhardt dying at Fort Merceus in "Dirge" a long time ago, but I hadn't really fleshed it out as a full scene. Sometimes I have to remind myself that when I'm not making it an AU about Card Games, Three Houses was a really sad game!
> 
> The use of blank space to represent an important pause is something I haven't ever done on AO3 before, so I'm hoping that worked!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this story, and I welcome any feedback or questions you might have! I wish you a wonderful day!


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